Lake City holds off scrappy Lewiston in OT
JASON ELLIOTT | Hagadone News Network | UPDATED 13 years, 9 months AGO
Jason Elliott has worked at The Press for 14 years and covers both high school and North Idaho College athletics. Before that, he spent eight years covering sports at the Shoshone News-Press in Wallace, where he grew up. | February 22, 2012 8:15 PM
COEUR d'ALENE - Lake City High boys basketball coach Jim Winger had a bad feeling all day on Tuesday about the Timberwolves' loser-out game against the fourth-seeded Lewiston Bengals in the 5A Region 1 tournament.
Fortunately for Lake City - that feeling didn't come true.
Senior Riley Moreen scored seven of his game-high 18 points in overtime to lead the Timberwolves past the Bengals 60-50.
"Riley was huge for us offensively tonight," Winger said. "We got into some foul trouble late and our kids adjusted well to our zone defense. (Randon) Fuentes started hitting some shots, but we were able to make some plays late to keep us in the game."
Lewiston had a chance to win after senior Ben Havens was fouled with 1.5 seconds remaining and the Bengals trailing 45-44. Havens missed the first free throw, but made the second to force overtime.
“We’ve been in a lot of these games,” Winger said. “But I was pretty pleased with our effort. Lewiston was very offensive tonight. We had to survive to play another day.”
Lake City outscored Lewiston 15-5 in overtime to come away with the win.
“We showed some moxie there,” Winger said. “I had a feeling about this game today. This was both teams’ last chance and they tend to step up.”
Mitch Bevacqua added 14 points for Lake City (14-8), which travels to Coeur d’Alene (which lost to Post Falls on Tuesday 47-41) on Friday at 7 p.m., for the region’s second berth to the state tournament.
“Right now, it doesn’t matter who we play,” Winger said. “We’ve got just as good a shot against either team.”
“In the beginning, we were kind of dead,” Bevacqua said. “But when it came to clutch time, we were pretty good.”
Bevacqua scored the first five points of overtime for Lake City.
“It was really important to us to set the tone early in overtime,” Bevacqua said. “We’d like to play at home, but we’ve beaten both of them, so we know we can do it.”
Fuentes scored 16 points and Sam Heitzman added 11 points for Lewiston, which finishes the season 7-15.
Lewiston 10 9 12 14 5 — 50
Lake City 8 9 19 9 15 — 60
LEWISTON — Fuentes 16, Pedersen 9, Madsen 0, Scott 0, Gaskill 3, Heitzman 11, Larson 0, Hewett-Steiger 0, Havens 10, Baerlocher 1, Boyer 0.
LAKE CITY — Traverse 0, Pratt 8, Bevacqua 11, Ross 1, Ness 3, Moreen 18, Guice 11, Winger 5.
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